Job2Do

It’s taken a while, but Phuket now has its answer to Koh Pha Ngan’s full moon reputation – the Phuket Roy Fest. Granted, the Roy Fest is not every month, but it has big names that Pha Ngan would find it hard to match.

The festival (“Roy” means, roughly, “cool” in southern Thai dialect), takes place on June 25 and 26 at Karon Beach. The 26th sees a full moon rise shortly after 6pm. Roy Fest will feature a line-up that includes such Thai stalwarts as Reggae artists Job2Do and Fourgasm, ska bands Joe Fox and Tamone, hip hop band Buddha Bless and a load of deejays, including platter-meisters from Singapore, Japan and Ireland. Here’s the full programme:

Friday June 25
6-7 pm –  Joe Fox (Ska)

Buddha Bless.

7-8 pm  - Job2Do (Reggae)
8-9 pm  - Mahajamruen (Electro Live)
9-10:30 pm – DJs Thanathron (Techno)
10:30 to midnight – DJs Activa (Electronica)
Midnight to 2 am – DJs Agnelli and Nelson (Trance, Electronica – from Ireland)

Saturday June 26
6-7 pm – Tamone (Ska)
7-8 pm – Fourgasm Live Band (Reggae)
8-9 pm – Bhuddha Bless (HipHop)
9-10:30 pm – DJs Spydermonkee (Drum & Bass)
10:30 to midnight – DjB (Electronica – from Singapore)
Midnight to 2 am - DJs Yogi (Trance, Electronica, Techno – from Japan)

And the best thing is, it’s free.

The event, “Phuket Live Vol 1 on the Beach” (that’s a catchy name) will take place at Nong Harn Beach, just north of the Karon roundabout. It starts at 5pm. Tickets are B1,500 each.

Artists will include Tuk Viyada, Koh Mr.Saxman, E.T.C., Kel Dela and the Indy Jazz Band. It’s organised by the Phuket Provincial Government, the Karon Municipality and the shadowy Black Cheese Love, about whom we can tell you nothing.

The last major concert at this venue featured Kenny G, and was a big hit. A tough act to follow.

While we’re on the topic of music events, Club Lime in Patong is organising a Latin Carnival weekend for May 29 and 30. This will consist of a Latin cruise on the first day (pick-up at Club Lime on the beach road). “Sexy Tequila girls and prizes” are promised. The cruise price of B1,990 will include a buffet meal on board, and three free drinks.

In the evening, starting at 9pm, Club Lime will be the venue for a Latin Foam Party. We’re not quite sure what this is, but there is a vaguely titillating video here. The evening will feature a set by the dance group Samba Thriller and you get canapés three free drinks in the price of B400.

The following day the Latin Beach Party starts at 4pm, with tapas and two free sangrias in the entry price of B990. At 9:30pm Samba Thriller will  encore, and Latinos Sabotage will put on a samba  workshop to try to help all those people with two left feet.

¡Ay, arriba, arriba!

Richard Clapton (left) and Charlie Musselwhite.

Andy Andersen, organiser of the annual Phuket Blues-Rock Festival, which takes place on February 26 and 27, has organised a couple of intimate dinners for small groups of people to get to know the two headliners – Charlie Musselwhite and Richard Clapton.

The first, with Australian rock hero Clapton, takes place on the 24th at the Baan Rim Pa restaurant at the north end of Patong, while the dinner with Musselwhite will be the following evening at Twin Palms. Dinner will run from 7 to 10pm.

Diners will get a five-course meal with three wines, plus VIP tickets to the festival and CDs signed by the musicians. Plus, of course, a promise of fascinating conversation and anecdotes.

There are just six places for each of the meals and in both cases, two have already been booked. Andy has asked us not to mention the price, but it will be more than your average bowl of noodles. You can ask him by emailing him. The festival website is here.

Franck Blanchard is the band's bassist

For romantics who enjoy jazz, French group Jazz Cool Band (JCB) will play a one-night gig in Phuket Town on February 14 – Valentine’s Day – in the Suan Chaleamprakiet 72 years Queen Sirikit Park (next to the Tourism Authority of Thailand offices on Thalang Rd).

The nine-piece band – which includes sax, clarinet, piano, bass, trombone, trumpet, bugle and drums, fronted by Jean Louis Nguyen Qui on vocals and sax – have two agendas: to promote the big-band jazz sound, and to help raise money for charity. In the case of the Phuket concert, organised by the Rotary Club of Tongkah, the funds raised will go to improving the the library at Bang Niew School in Phuket Town.

This is JCB’s first performance in Phuket, but the band are no strangers to Thailand. They played charity concerts in Bangkok in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Last year they did a tour that took in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phitsanulok and Khon Kaen. They have also released four CDs, each linked to raising charity funds.

Their repertoire includes jazz classics by musicians such as Glen Miller, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, along with favourites performed originally by crooners such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Nat King Cole.

They also sing in French, Brazilian and Chinese, and since coming to Thailand, have added some of HM the King’s jazz compositions. – sure favourites with Thai audiences – to their playlist.

In Phuket, the band will be the highlight of an evening of entertainment featuring a classic and exotic cars show and a performance by the Phuket Youth Chamber Orchestra. These, on ground level, will be free, with the gates opening at 5pm.

JCB will play on the upper floor, above the car park, from 7 to 9:30pm, with a half-hour break at 8pm. Tickets to their performance will cost 1,500 baht apiece.

For samples of JCB in performance, visit their MySpace page.

Charlie Musselwhite is the headliner on Day 2 of the event. Photo by Mikesfox.

Woaaah! Clapton’s going to play in Phuket. Yup, that’s right – Clapton, Richard Clapton. From Australia… Poor guy must get this all the time, which is actually unfair. In his native Oz, Richard’s been an icon for a long time, and some of his melodic rock songs are still on every Aussie FM station playlist.

While he may not quite be up in the stratosphere with Eric, he’s been there and done that – went on the trail to London in the ’70s, and later to Germany, drawing applause from fellow troubadors Neil Young and Jackson Browne, before scoring critical and public acclaim as long ago as 1975, with his second album, Girls on the Avenue.

Richard is just one of the stars lined up for the Phuket International Blues Rock Festival, on February 26 and 27 at its usual venue in the grounds of the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa. He’ll headline Day 1 of the event.

Richard Clapton - big name in Oz.

The Phuket festival just gets better. The headliner on Day 2 is top blues harp player and vocalist Charlie Musselwhite. Originally from Mississippi, he cut his teeth in the Chicago blues scene in the early ’60s alongside such greats as Elmore James, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. He soared to fame with Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite’s Southside Band in 1966, and has since gone on to release more than 20 albums, and has guested on other albums by the likes of Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt and INXS.

The festival will feature six acts per night, including regulars the Rich Harper Band from the US, KNiKi from Australia, George Cordeiro and the Fai Jang Blues Gang, and local Phuket heroes Tony “Chainsaw” Wilson and Rob Davies. New to the festival next year will be world music band AkashA from Malaysia, Latino Blues meister Andy Gonzales, Robert “One Man” Johnson (both from the US) and Bangkok’s Retrovision.

For more information, contact Andy Andersen, Festival Director, at +66 (0) 86 682 2639; email: phuketmusic@yahoo.com, or visit the festival website. For tickets see this page.

Nantida Kaewbuasai.

In the West, the glitterati go to an Elton John concert, or maybe Bruce Springstein. In Phuket, the Thai glitterati go to see Nantida Kaewbuasai.

Nantida is famed for her 1980s ballad Bawk Noi Dai Mai? (Could you tell me?) and is a big favourite with those who are, shall we say, no longer as young as they might like to be.

She’ll be singing a one-night stand in Phuket on March 7 to raise funds for the Sunshine Village, which looks after kids orpahned or otherwise affected by the 2004 Asian Tsunami.

The concert will be at the Merlin Hotel in Phuket Town. Tickets range from 1,000 to 2,000 baht, or 10,000 baht for a table of ten. Contact Vilaiwan Dienel on 08 1397 1567 or email Liana at info@phuketlp.com – and mingle with the cream of Phuket Thai society.

To listen to Bawk Noi Dai Mai?, click here.